graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration and worked for Intel Corporation prior to the events of September 11, 2001. Roland then enlisted and served in the U.S. Army with the 3rd Special Forces Group as a Special Forces medical sergeant (Green Beret Medic/18D). He deployed to Afghanistan with his A-Team specializing in mountain warfare and high-altitude rescue. Roland was traumatically injured by an IED blast resulting in both legs being amputated above the knee and retired from the U.S. Army. After working in the Department of Defense and intelligence community for a short time, he decided to return to something that he enjoyed during his Army career, medicine. Roland returned to school to become a physician's assistant. Roland is now an emergency medicine PA working for the University of Texas, staffing South Texas’ largest county hospital. It is a Level 1 trauma, stroke and cardiac emergency department that serves the surrounding 22 counties of South Texas. When not treating patients in the ER, he has an ongoing DoD-funded research project on hemorrhage control, teaches students and medical residents in the emergency room, works with and mentors other traumatically injured soldiers through the Green Beret Foundation, and is an owner of a medical training and consulting company—Med Training Group LLC.